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Lost Duchy - First regional map for comment

This is my first post and first presentable map it still in progress but nearly finished. I'm adding the names and villages. It needs a scale, title and compass rose.

The Lost Duchy is the setting for a GURPS roleplaying game, the PCs haven't explored much so there won't be much in the way of names and places yet. The Duchy is an isolated temperate zone in mountains that tower over the surrounding sub-tropical jungle (its a fantasy game).

I used photoshop and these tutorials (which blew my mind):

Ravells: How to make non-destructive textured maps in Photoshop

Pasi Soini: Creating mountains and other terrains in Photoshop

I can still see some brush marks on the mountains. The name of Gumfrie ought to be the same point size as the other names. In Ravells tutorial he makes much use of a Jiggle filter, I downloaded a trial version of Eye Candy 6 but still can't find jiggle.

This is my first post here. I'm interested to know what people think of the map. What jumps out as needing improvement?

Hello and welcome to the guild!
Crtics: I really like the mountains, they give a very good height feeling. They could use a bit more of texture, tough, but I'm not certain about that.
What needs improvement are the rivers. They look as if they are carved out with a one size pen (which they are I think), then there are these white lines in it which is very irritating. And the northern source of the river that comes from the mountain in the north west looks as if it flows up (Actually I think you began with this river and then you became much better in drawing them).

Crtics: I really like the mountains, they give a very good height feeling. They could use a bit more of texture, tough, but I'm not certain about that.

The lower slopes have more texture than the higher bits. The mountains seem to get smoother as they get higher, I'll need to fix that.

Originally Posted by Zar Peter

What needs improvement are the rivers. They look as if they are carved out with a one size pen (which they are I think), then there are these white lines in it which is very irritating. And the northern source of the river that comes from the mountain in the north west looks as if it flows up (Actually I think you began with this river and then you became much better in drawing them).

They were cut out with a simple pen. I suppose they should get narrower as they get higher or - more properly - wider as they flow down. Any tips on how to do that, besides simply drawing better? So you don't like the white lines. They can go, they were a random addition from an experiment. On a second look I do see that northern river merrily flowing up hill, cresting the ridge and then flowing down!

Looks good for a first go, but yeah...those rivers... To me it looks more like long fiords instead of rivers. Even carved out of the mountains. I think the bevel on the rivers is something to look at. I am not a PS user so I am no help there. I do like the rest of it though. I agree with AS that the mountains can work as is, and the colors and and water texture also work.

Oh and by the way, Welcome to the Guild and have some rep for posting a Map along with your first post.

Art Critic = Someone with the Eye of an Artist, Words of a Bard, and the Talent of a Rock.

Thanks for that the tapering pencil effect is very handy. However in the tutorial Ravells has a vector he can modify after its drawn when I do it it is already rasterised and I can't change the shape. Why is that?

Originally Posted by Korash

Looks good for a first go, but yeah...those rivers... To me it looks more like long fiords instead of rivers. Even carved out of the mountains. I think the bevel on the rivers is something to look at. I am not a PS user so I am no help there. I do like the rest of it though. I agree with AS that the mountains can work as is, and the colors and and water texture also work.

I entirely agree. I've tried to find a solution, if you look at the river that flows by The Capital up in the mountains I made a short section that lies on top of the mountain texture. It seems better to me. However it was fiddly and I'm not going to redo all the rivers - for now. Thanks for the rep!

Here is the map with all the suggestions so far included (I didn't include the compass rose I was going to use becuase I realise I ripped it from some map years ago and I have no idea who it belongs to):

good looking map! I like the colors, mountains and also the forest texture is very nice! Personally I'd make the rivers origins still a little smaller yet and I also notice that the edges of the rivers get "darker" the higher the landscpae gets making it look as if the river is the same height as the lakes. maybe if you lower that a bit and add make the rivers a little lighter blue (as they are shallower then the lakes) they look more like "flowing down from the mountains" ... cheers